On the evening of September 5, 1887, Exeter Theatre Royal caught fire. The building was just months old - having been built to replace a predecessor also destroyed in a blaze.

It was the opening night of a new comedy, Romany Rye, and 800 people were packed into the venue.

Three minutes after the fire was spotted at 10.10pm the building was engulfed in flames. After an hour it was destroyed - 186 people died in the flames, in the crush to escape or throwing themselves from the building.

It remains the largest loss of life in a property fire in the country.

Theatre Royal Fire

And it changed the way theatres, and public buildings, have operated ever since - with the introduction of new safety regulations for all public buildings and fire-proof safety curtains for all theatres.

Fire broke out during the fourth act of the play when a naked gas flame caught drapes above the stage.

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Panic then broke out as people rushed for the few fire exits there were, finding themselves crushed in doorways and narrow stair cases or trapped on the roof with nowhere to go.

Theatre Royal Fire (Image: Illustrated Police News)

The West of England Insurance Company tried to put out the flames with their fire engine, which proved ineffective.

The landlord of the nearby New London Inn brought ladders to the scene, then opened his pub to shelter the victims.

A report published the day after the fire by H P Such of London read: "The suddenness of the outbreak, the rapidity with which the flames spread, and the lack of sufficient outlets combined to make the calamity all the more appalling and the deaths the more horrible.

Theatre Royal fire (Image: Illustrated Police News)

"Notwithstanding the fact that the Exeter Theatre was a new one, opened last autumn, and that it's predecessor suffered a similar fate, it seems to have been full of awkward staircases amid passages and cramped exits, which soon became blocked; and more deaths are due to such causes than to the fire itself.

"The gallery, which was crowded, had only one exit, which soon became blocked, and the occupants of that part of the house were imprisoned in a furnace to be crushed suffocated, or burned to death."

Theatre Royal fire (Image: Illustrated Police News)

The report added: "Within three minutes the theatre was a roaring furnace. Flames shot up through the roof over the stage and dense smoke poured forth from every window. The roar of fire, the shrieks of women, despairing shouts of men, both in the streets and on the balconies, made up an awful scene.

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"Women threw themselves into the streets from side balconies, quite a distance of 40 feet, and the flat lead roof over the portico was crowded with human beings crying for help. Meanwhile the fire had swept with amazing rapidity from the stage, and tongues of flame licked and scorched those on the balconies.

Theatre Royal fire (Image: Illustrated Police News)

"There seemed to be no choice between a horrible death and becoming a mangled corpse on the pavement below, which was already covered with the blood of those who had cast themselves despairingly down. Soon after the outbreak the City Fire Brigade were on the spot, but the water they poured on the fire was absolutely without effect.

There was only one escape from the gallery, and most of those in that part of the theatre died, while others reached the roof over New North Road only to find no way down.

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The report described 'utmost panic': "The shrieks, as described by one or two who did get outside were heartrending. Blinded and nearly stifled with smoke, the unfortunate people could perceive no chance of escape, and its believed that over 90 lives were lost here."

Many of those who died were buried in a mass grave in Heavitree Cemetery, where a memorial still stands.